'This war is not of their making,' Omani foreign minister says of Iran
The man who oversaw the negotiations between the US and Iran into their final hours last month has now publicly declared that the Islamic Republic is not the one responsible for the war the US and Israel began on 28 February.
"Whatever your view of Iran, this war is not of their making," Oman's foreign minister, Badr al-Busaidi, said on X on Monday.
"This is already causing widespread economic problems, and I fear they promise to get much worse if the war continues. Oman is working intensively to put in place safe passage arrangements for the Strait of Hormuz," he added.
His comments are a stark departure from his Gulf counterparts, all of whom have expressed some level of anger at Tehran, as they bear the brunt of its retaliatory attacks, which have targeted US assets and personnel in the region, but also Gulf energy infrastructure.
Busaidi, who does not normally appear for interviews and maintains a low profile, has become much more visible since the US-Israeli war on Iran.
He took a trip to Washington just 24 hours before Trump announced the start of the war to appear on CBS News and effectively plead for further diplomacy. He said that Iran had made significant concessions in negotiations with the US.
Last week, Busaidi wrote in The Economist that Iran’s "retaliation against what it claims are American targets on the territory of its neighbours was an inevitable, if deeply regrettable and completely unacceptable, result".
"Faced with what both Israel and America described as a war designed to terminate the Islamic Republic, this was probably the only rational option available to the Iranian leadership," he said.
Global peace not 'well served by this'
Later reporting suggested that US mediators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner did not bring technical experts with them to the talks, resulting in a lack of understanding of the offers on the table.
"Neither the interests of the United States nor the cause of global peace are well served by this," Busaidi wrote on X after the US and Israel started the war. "And I pray for the innocents who will suffer. I urge the United States not to get sucked in further. This is not your war."
On Monday, the Arab youth-focused social news account, The Lens Post, reported that the UAE - whose leader has already threatened Iran with potential retaliation - has crafted a national narrative on the war that it is dispensing to the country's media.
The strategy targets both Saudi Arabia and Oman for their unwillingness to confront Iran in the Strait of Hormuz and reopen the waterway to international shipping.
Saudi Arabia had mended ties with Iran before the war and lobbied the US not to attack. It has since struggled between its desire to stay out of the conflict and deter further Iranian strikes.
Middle East Eye reported that Saudi Arabia has been under intense US pressure to join in offensive strikes and that it had recently granted the US expanded basing access.
Like the rest of the Gulf nations, the kingdom relies entirely on Washington for its defence.
More than 2,000 Iranians have been killed so far, as well as 13 Americans and several dozen Israelis, though Israel does not allow for a casualty count to be publicised.
Sixty people have been killed in Iraq, largely from the Iran-backed Popular Mobilisation Forces.
Across the Gulf Cooperation Council, 25 people have been killed, many of them expatriates whose deaths were a result of rocket remnants from intercepted missiles overhead.
This article was sourced from Middle East Eye.
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